Wood biowaste in goatskin preservation to reduce salinity in the tannery wastewater

A prime technique for paused bacterial degeneration in hide/skin is preservation. The most used and familiar technique for preservation is salt curing. In this research, biowaste (sawdust) is used with a lower salt percentage to preserve goatskin. Sawdust is an organic material. It can be used as a preserving agent to reduce salinity in the tannery effluent. Different parameters were observed during the preservation period, e.g., hair slips, moisture content, bad odor, total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), hydroxyproline, hydrothermal stability, and bacterial count, and matched with traditional method. The results allude that 5% sawdust with less amount of salt could preserve goatskin for 28 days. The shoe upper leather was produced from both conventional and experimental samples after they were processed. After that, various physical and organoleptic tests were conducted and compared. For characterizing the material, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry was tested. Besides, scanning electron microscope analysis was also conducted which showed that there was no structural damage in fibers. Various pollution parameters were determined and compared with conventional samples where the results show that the reduction for Cl⁻, total dissolved solids (TDS), biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, and chemical oxygen demand are 41.4%, 22.7%, 45.3%, 31.6%, and 53.3%, respectively, in the liquor from soaking operation. Hence, the sawdust-based organic preservation method is verified to be beneficial compared to the conventional method in reducing pollution load in the tannery effluent.

Graphical abstract